The Guitar Thread

[Top_Cat]

I've listened to and was well aware of Stephen Magnusson, but I hadn't checked out this Muller fellow.

Just been going through a few of his sets. I'm really enjoying his playing. My type of fusion. And yeah, the tone is good - pretty standard modern jazz tone except MUCH LESS CHORUS THANK GOD! still uses a bit of chorus to get that fuller sound but it's not bathing in it a la Holdsworth and Scofield and certain eras of Metheny.

So much truth. I sorta hate chorus, tbbbh.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

So much truth. I sorta hate chorus, tbbbh.

surely you haven't played a JC-120

 

[Top_Cat]

Have. Never liked chorus. Live, lead tone has always been bare-bones and all I do to the rhythm tone is squash and/or EQ it. I like a bit more gain than the usual blues tone, though. No delay/flange/phaser except for a specific part, no reverb unless it's a particularly dead room. When recording, record totally dry and let the engineer add whatever is necessary for the mix.

Unusually for a (predominantly these days) funk player, almost never use wah for rhythm either. Can't stand it when I see ostensibly funk guys use it to death. See, my attitude toward funk rhythm is that when you're not soloing, you're more of a percussion instrument than a melodic one, the aim to get hips shaking and crotches thrusting. The Wah sweep, even short ones, doesn't have the immediacy that leads to that except for very specific circumstances, in my opinion.

 

[Top_Cat]

Wait, I'm lying. There's one song I recorded where a solo part uses chorus.

 

[hendrix]

Yeah that's fair, I was more shocked that it still worked considering the state of disrepair its in. But yeah, always liked the solid state amps. I know yer metal heads have a tube fetish too but you just have to listen to a bloke with one of the most monstrous rhythm and lead tones of all time, Dimebag Darrell, was a strong advocate of Randall RG-100s, not a tube in sight.

Still get them on eBay dirt cheap too. Why pay $5K+ for a Krank when these things are still around?

randall rg-100 | eBay

Have. Never liked chorus. Live, lead tone has always been bare-bones and all I do to the rhythm tone is squash and/or EQ it. I like a bit more gain than the usual blues tone, though. No delay/flange/phaser except for a specific part, no reverb unless it's a particularly dead room. When recording, record totally dry and let the engineer add whatever is necessary for the mix.

Unusually for a (predominantly these days) funk player, almost never use wah for rhythm either. Can't stand it when I see ostensibly funk guys use it to death. See, my attitude toward funk rhythm is that when you're not soloing, you're more of a percussion instrument than a melodic one, the aim to get hips shaking and crotches thrusting. The Wah sweep, even short ones, doesn't have the immediacy that leads to that except for very specific circumstances, in my opinion.

Wait, I'm lying. There's one song I recorded where a solo part uses chorus.

Yeah those Randalls are awesome. It's so weird that even Randall's main lines these days are all tube when the solid state FET amps are what made them famous. Guitarists are so ****ing stupid, and brands just follow the market research rather than attempting leadership or educating the customers.

re: chorus, I think if you're a 3 piece band where the guitar is a major focal point, a tiny touch of chorus is very useful to dense up the sound. For me it's effectively a live attempt to replicate double tracking - gets a bit of extra thickness in there. But when it's used as an effect in and of itself? yuck. Apart from Prince of course. But then, most people aren't Prince.

DI guitar is such a great option for funk. Pretty sure the guitar part in Uptown Funk is just a neck pickup straight into the mixer. So good.

It may not surprise you to know I love wah. But yes, it should be used very sparingly. Absolutely agree about it being wrong for the percussive parts in funk.

 

[hendrix]

for the lulz...

 

[Top_Cat]

One of my favourite Rhoads solos and nicely played too!

Just makes me think of what a gun the bloke was and how much the world lost when he died. Speaking of ****ing brilliant solos.

 

[hendrix]

yeah he was the man.

Tempted to have a go at Mr Crowley, but transcribing triple-tracked guitars where each part is slightly different was ****ing annoying tbh.

 

[Red Hill]

The female singer, I'd ask her to do another take because, as a rule, she's quite flat.

works with the song, it's pretty flat as a whole.

 

[hendrix]

There's a fixed tail ibanez prestige RG on trademe right now. Kinda my perfect guitar. Hmmm.

 

[hendrix]

Should be with me in a couple of days.

I don't know who it was that finally convinced Ibanez to make some non-trem Prestige level guitars but thank **** they finally listened. Always loved the super wizard necks and the playability...just have never been able to deal with any type of trem - even gave up on strats. Just way too annoying to deal with the tuning issues on even the best-designed trems.

 

[Top_Cat]

Wizard necks are super shred, expect videos of 6-string sweep taps and blistering legato runs. Considering it's a fixie, what guage strings you going to use?

 

[hendrix]

Wizard necks are super shred, expect videos of 6-string sweep taps and blistering legato runs. Considering it's a fixie, what guage strings you going to use?

I suck at sweeping, it was never my style - I meant I'll throw in a few 3 string sweeps here and there but never got into the whole up-down-up-down thing. I can legato run with the best of em though if i do say so myself. I just really like the wide, thin necks with the flat radius. I've never understood the obsession with old style thick, round radius necks. Sure they make fingering chords a touch easier for complete noobs but otherwise they're worse at everything else.

I dunno tbh. On my Gibson I used to have big heavy flatwound 13s...then a few years ago I got sick of the muted sound and went through a heavy bottom light top phase, and finally settled on standard 10-46 ernie balls.

So yeah, I'll start out with 10s. Not sure whether that'll be too tight on a 25.5" scale but we'll see.

 

[hendrix]

She's bloody beautiful but gee the volume knob just has to go.

Haven't properly played a strat-style guitar in years...forgot how ridiculously placed that damn knob is. Gonna get rid of the tone knob and move the volume pot to where it is. I never use the tone pot anyway.

Also not sure about the pickups at the moment. I'm used to really bright pickups and these are a bit muddy, even in split mode. Nothing that I can't fix by dialling out some bass/adding treble on the amp side, but if I'm using my other guitar on the same set it'll be a bit annoying.

Maybe I'll just switch out the pot for 1000K or something to see if that brightens it a touch.

 

[Top_Cat]

Maybe give this a crack with the volume pot?

Alan Ratcliffe - Articles: Electric Guitar Volume Pots 2: Treble Bleed Mods

 

[hendrix]

Maybe give this a crack with the volume pot?

Alan Ratcliffe - Articles: Electric Guitar Volume Pots 2: Treble Bleed Mods

My main consideration at the moment is just ergonomic - the volume pot placed where it is gets in the way of my picking hand. So I will definitely be getting rid of the tone pot and moving the volume in its place.

I don't know whether I need more brightness when I roll off the volume though - when I say the pickup is a bit muddy I just mean its not as tight as I like the bridge pup for thrash style rhythm. I think when I roll off the volume I like a bit off the tone to naturally roll off anyway - particularly if I'm not going to have a tone knob in there.

 

[Top_Cat]

heh, guitar is so individual eh. My strat volume is exactly where I want it so I can roll it off all the time but when soloing, also do that those Yngwie-style swells.

I back your idea of changing out the pot to get the brightness better, though.

 

[hendrix]

heh, guitar is so individual eh. My strat volume is exactly where I want it so I can roll it off all the time but when soloing, also do that those Yngwie-style swells.

haha yeah, it's particularly weird cos I have tiny little girl hands, and yet the knob gets in the way when it doesn't for someone like Vai with monstrous hands.

I gave up on the volume swell things after about 5 mins. I was trying to copy Jeff Beck not Ynwie though. Oh and that solo from Outlaw Torn which is actually one of Kirk's best IMO.

I back your idea of changing out the pot to get the brightness better, though.

yeah I'll definitely try it before I try changing the pickups.

 

[Top_Cat]

haha yeah, it's particularly weird cos I have tiny little girl hands, and yet the knob gets in the way when it doesn't for someone like Vai with monstrous hands.

Actually I think that makes sense. I have big hands and they're always sort 'covering' the pot, even when not using it whereas if you've got smaller hands, I think you'd be more likely to bump into it. What kills me is dual-humbucker guitars, can't play fast because if I move closer to the neck pup, strings are too twangy to shred but if I go close to the bridge pup, pick clangs against it. Gyarrrrrrr.

 

[hendrix]

Actually I think that makes sense. I have big hands and they're always sort 'covering' the pot, even when not using it whereas if you've got smaller hands, I think you'd be more likely to bump into it. What kills me is dual-humbucker guitars, can't play fast because if I move closer to the neck pup, strings are too twangy to shred but if I go close to the bridge pup, pick clangs against it. Gyarrrrrrr.

Yeah that makes sense.

Haha! You are the complete opposite to me. Dual humbucking guitars are perfect for me. I think I just naturally pick in between that two.

It's also just a product of what I've always played - I've exclusively played my 347 for more than 5 years and gave up on strats a long time ago. I actually don't remember if finding the volume knob all that annoying so I must have been working around it. My technique is pretty set now though so I'm not going to adjust my playing this time.